Microbial pathogens of freshwater crayfish: A critical review and systematization of the existing data with directions for future research

Despite important ecological role and growing commercial value of freshwater crayfish, their diseases are underresearched and many studies examining potential crayfish pathogens do not thoroughly address their epizootiology, pathology or biology. This study reviews over 100 publications on potentially pathogenic viruses, bacteria, fungi and fungal-like microorganisms reported in crayfish and systematizes them based on whether pathogenicity has been observed in an analysed species. Conclusions on pathogenicity were based on successful execution of infectivity trials. For 40.6% of examined studies, microbes were successfully systematized, while for more than a half (59.4%) no conclusion on pathogenicity could be made. Fungi and fungal-like microorganisms were the most studied group of microbes with the highest number of analysed hosts, followed by bacteria and viruses. Our analysis demonstrated the need for: (a) inclusion of higher number of potential host species in the case of viruses, (b) research of bacterial effects in tissues other than haemolymph, and (c) more research into potential fungal and fungal-like pathogens other than Aphanomyces astaci. We highlight the encountered methodological challenges and biases and call for a broad but standardized framework for execution of infectivity trials that would enable systematic data acquisition on interactions between microbes and the host.